2022 EIT Food Activites

A consortium of European universities, startups, and food companies is running over twenty separate projects under the EIT Food programme, tackling everything from farm emissions to packaging waste. This matters because the food system faces multiple, interconnected pressures: consumers distrust supply chains, livestock farming produces significant greenhouse gases, and food packaging creates persistent waste. The projects address these problems from different angles. One team is building a computer game that teaches precision farming techniques. Another is developing a master's programme in food systems. A third is creating a "Trust Tracker" tool to monitor consumer confidence in food companies. Others focus on specific technical challenges, such as turning spent grain from brewing into nutritious bakery ingredients, or connecting milk seasonality to nutritional needs to inform farm-to-fork innovations. If these projects succeed, the impact would be scattered across the food chain. Farmers might adopt more efficient, data-driven practices. Consumers could gain clearer information about where their food comes from. New products could reduce waste by using by-products that are currently discarded. The next generation of food professionals would receive training that accounts for the entire system, from production to disposal.